Discovery of the Croque Madame

In a last week before summer kinda celebration, The Girl and I headed down for our semi-annual downtown lunch celebration. We're both displaced from the city - by choice and job location, admittedly - and like to head into town any time we can just so we don't feel like total deserters.

On this late-summer trip, we started in Mt Adams, wandering around one of the highest points in Cincy on a hundred-degree day. It was certainly warm, but the views were gorgeous. From there, we headed into Eden Park for the Art Museum - which, it turns out, doesn't open until 11 am - we got there at 10. So down into the heart of the city, to a stop at the gorgeous main branch. Onward a bit further downtown to the find of the day - Bistro JeanRo on Vine Street, just below Tower Place.

Bistro JeanRo is labeled as a Cincinnati French Bistro, but I didn't see much Cincinnati in there. Instead, we were treated to a spectacular lunch of a croque monsieur (for The Girl) and a croque madame for me. Beside a healthy serving of marvelously crisp and flavorful pommes frites, I was served a marvelous concoction of ham and swiss on two perfectly butter-toasted slices of bread, topped with an egg over easy and a bechamel sauce. It can't get much richer and tasties than the croque madame. The sandwich - clearly eaten with a fork - was marvelous, tasty, hearty, a true find.

If you ever get a chance to drop down to JeanRo's, treat yourself to a croque monsieur deluxe. It won't get any better than that.